Liberty!

My good friend recently posted this on Facebook, and i was utterly speechless. All i had to say was "win". So i decided i'd share it with you all!

Nearly four centuries ago, in the year 1620, a large group of Englishmen left everything that they ever knew and everything that they ever had. They got their kids and their wives, and they set sail. These people may not have had high-paying jobs, the most decent houses, or the straightest teeth (besides the fact that they were Englishmen), but they were not stupid. They knew Europe, and the basic governments and benefits of Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, etc. They knew about Asia, Africa, and Australia. They knew for a fact that these places did exist, just like we know that they’re there today. They could have gone to any of these places, but they didn’t. They went to the fabled Americas.

It being discovered just a century before, people at this time, especially of their social class, didn’t have any hard evidence that the Americas even really existed. For all that they knew, all of these voyagers could have just sailed out of sight and then made a b-line for some tropical country that they already knew about, bringing back false proof of their endeavors. The only two things that they really knew about their journey were that the Atlantic Ocean was a living, breathing monster, and that their exact destination was… west. Regarding all of this, they still left. The journey was violent, sickening, and risky. They were sailing against the wind in the deepest part of the most violent body of water to get to a place that they weren’t sure existed and the fear of what was there if not there Americas.

These 13th century travelers are known, not as pilgrims, but as Pilgrims; a proper noun, implying the Pilgrims. Why, though, is the question. I’ve scratched the surface of the situation… barely. Well, it’s quite obvious that they were looking for something, and when something is lost, nobody looks where they know it isn’t. So, what were they looking for? Liberty.

For all the big-government lovers out there, think about this; These people had a big government, growing bigger under the tyrant King James VI. They left all of that, not just for a smaller government, but no government. They saw and experienced first-hand what kind of damage can happen. They wanted freedom; freedom to religion, speech, and writing. Sound familiar? These make the basic foundation of liberty, and the foundation of our great country.

Here’s an interesting question that I found myself asking on Thanksgiving Day last year: What would they think now? If they went into the future for even five minutes (and assuming they didn’t go crazy from the dramatic cultural change), would they say that this is what they wanted? What if they came in the 1920’s, with facist President Woodrow Wilson in charge, who had people who spoke out against him arrested? I don’t think that they would be thinking to themselves, “Oh, this is just what we wanted to come out of our endeavor!”

It seems that our country has been slowly loosing the liberty it was founded on since the Civil War. Look at prohibition, for instance. The progressive extremists didn’t like to drink or think drinking was right, so they illegalized it. Well, what about the people who did like it? The every-day people who either liked the taste or found it a way to escape the stress of their stressful jobs and lives (drunk-driving was not an issue at this time, especially with cars going only to the super-rich and topped out at amazing speeds of 8mph). If you are Hindu and you don’t believe in Judaism, that’s one thing. If you decide to take legislative action against it, that is something completely different: fascism.

Another one that may have been one of the most controversial topics in the past 50 years is smoking. In about 1954, an announcement was make that smoking, something that people young and old had done for hundreds of years, was actually bad for you – really bad. To put this in perspective, it would be like Coca-Cola today (yes, Pepsi too, nitpickers). The news spread fast to everyone around the country. Legislative action starts kicking in. They wanted to ban smoking, demoralize it, and make it so nobody would want to smoke by making it sound a lot worse than it is. Not much has changed in 50 years when it comes to this. Guess what? People are STILL smoking! Why the nerve of these people! Maybe they don’t know how bad it is! Maybe they don’t know what they’re doing to themselves!

Here is a news-flash: everybody who smokes knows about the dangers of smoking – especially in these days, when the government schools act like it’s blasphemy to God to glance at a pack of cigarettes. People keep thinking that we need to spend more money to teach the smokers about the dangers, when they do, in fact know it. Some don’t like smoking, and there is nothing wrong with that. The smokers still want to smoke. “Why” is their own business, and a question that is completely irrelevant. These people have been taught by the schools, and (more importantly), their parents about the dangers so that one day, they can make the decision for themselves. This, my friends, is the essence of liberty! If people want to smoke, who is anyone else to tell them that what they’re doing is “wrong”? What good would passing any legislation do? None at all.

Marijuana is illegal, and yet a lot of people still do it – as a matter of fact, a huge amount of people to it. I would go as far as to say that it has only caused bad things – government spending for enforcement, crime, cartels, and pointless deaths. It isn’t the government’s place to control what we, as individuals, do to ourselves, and the Constitution will support me on that.

What I am trying to say is that liberty, the very thing that this country was founded on, is starting to be condemned. If someone’s next door neighbor is lighting up in his own house, is he hurting him? If a group of friends go camping and smoke a bit of weed, are they effecting anybody else at all? When thinking about these things, one should ask themselves, “Is it physically hurting anybody else or affecting their rights?” if the answer is “no,” then there isn’t any reason to make a big deal. That is their private business and nobody else can tell him differently.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines liberty as, “The power or scope to act as one pleases.” Is it really a big deal if a few 18-20 year-olds get drunk on a weekend night? Should a man who smokes weed once in a while be treated like a murderer? What if I said that the young-adults were responsible enough to just stay at that one place all night until they were sober enough to drive home? And that the other man just smoked weed seldomly and at a time distance from his work-hours that wouldn’t affect his performance? People aren’t idiots just because they do things that others may deem unmoral or unhealthy. Most are responsible people who also contribute to the country. Like Thomas Jefferson said, “It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Throw out all the nanny-state laws and obvious warning labels; I know my Klondike bar is fattening, but I still eat it. Sue me.

In conclusion, we are in the great country of the USA where liberty is a privilege AND a right. If somebody is eating a sextuple McFatty with cheese, nobody is making you eat it. Smoking isn’t good for you, coffee is hot, and some people believe different things than you. People need to recover this lost art called, “leaving it alone.” Like Mr. Jefferson said, “It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” If that is the case for what’s bothering you, just leave. We need to restore liberty in this country, before we turn into the very thing that our founding fathers were trying to avoid.

I agree with some point his individual made. However i would like to point out that while we have come a long way from the ideals that helped found this country we have done a lot for liberty. No i do not mean the government but the people, the civil rights movement for example, everyday people black and white pushed for that reform. This is what makes the US great its the everyday people who can drastically change what politicians do look at the Massachusetts election for senate now many senators are looking at their own stances and wondering if what their doing reflects what their voters want. The people who live everyday make America what it is not the government

He's not saying that we should live by rules created a hundred years ago, what he is saying is that if it affects no one else's right, leave it be. In my opinion he's right, (I find it sorta like being offended by something, it's pointless because it's not you or your life doing it, it's theirs, live and let live) (also, that was not meant to be rude, so don't bitch me out because i'm not in the mood for an arguement, debate maybe)

Smoking affects the people around you. Second hand is actually worse than smoking yourself. If those kids get drunk, who says they are in an condition to know what the right decision is, to drive or not? Go look up some statistics about some of the stuff in there. You'll see that most of the laws he's pointed out are to protect other people. If you take a naked picture of yourself at 14, and send it to people, you think "It's my body, who cares?". You'll find out that the government does, and you'll be registered as a sex offender.

The drinking situation stated "What if they /were/ responsible enough". You can't go and take the situation out of context. Which is what you did, making your point invalid. And the naked picture of one's self at 14 is exactly the thing he's talking about. the government shouldn't interfere. It's /your/ body. The government should not have the right to tell you what you can or can't do with it. That's not Liberty.

I would like to point out that actually Pilgrims is a misnomer and implies they all moved for religious reasons. The truth is they did not move for liberty but, the insensitive of gaining free land and the potential to gain more money and raise through the class system.
Our founding fathers broke away because of "heavy" taxation when in fact Americans paid 1/13 of the taxes British citizens paid, now some of you will argue it was about no taxation without representation! To this I will say the members of Parliament responsible for representing America were closer in class to the Americans than the British representatives were to the working class British they represented.
You say that we are taking away your liberty when in fact you are taking away ours You eat your burgers, smoke your cigarettes, and everything and then turn to the American tax payers and say "Give me money for being an nonconstructive citizen who hurt him or herself very well knowing what they were doing."
To you I say GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUT AND LEAVE THE COUNTRY IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE LAWS! YOU ARE HURTING MY FREEDOMS BY DEMANDING THAT YOU GET YOUR "FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES" THAT ENCOURAGE YOU TO BE LAZY AND FAT AND MOOCH OF ALL THE CONSTRUCTIVE MEMBERS OF SOCIETY WHO GAVE A RATS BEHIND ABOUT THEIR LIFE.

Now I am sorry if this seems offensive to any of you but it's the truth and I am sick and tired about hearing how America is losing liberties because in fact you are the ones taking them away from us and I can't stand that. I am in no way saying Europe is better because the reality is we are moving towards a single world and it's rather immature to draw lines simply because you can to try to say you
are the best is simply as statement that you aren't because if you were the best you shouldn't have to say it. The reality is we will all be equal and that is one of the ideals our founding fathers held.

If you'd stop being bias here you'd notice me and Darkhour did exactly the same thing. He felt i was bitching so told me 'don't bitch' i felt he was being an ass so i told him 'don't be an ass'.

I'm not destroying my argument, you're just too involved in this one to give any ground. Instead you're getting more involved and creating an argument out of nothing. You can add as many snide comments as you like.

I wasn't being biased, nor am i "too involved". I was annoyed with your response to his (admittedly poorly thought out) request that you not bitch at him. He didn't think you were bitching then. He was merely responding to your comment and then predicting/attempting to forestall bitching in the future. but at this point when the comments are threatening to start widening the screen it really doesn't bloody matter and i'm going to hush.

True, but it's that person's choice to smoke. The other person really doesn't want to deal with it. Laws are confusing anyway, what's allowed and what's not just depends on popularity. Smoking is popular among smokers, but not anyone else. And because those other people don't want it, and they're the majority, they win.

Well, I'm going to start by accepting your apology for the grammatical mistakes. You might want to work on that, it makes you sound like an idiot. But, then again, so does what you're saying, so maybe that's a moot point.

Here's the thing: you have NOTHING to back up most of what you're saying. "GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUT . . . THEIR LIFE" - in what way is that directed towards ANYTHING in the Liberty post? I'm sitting right here with the guy who wrote it, and he fails to see how what you're saying is even remotely related to what he said. Where was there anything about mooching or entitlement?

Yes, we eat our burgers and smoke our cigarettes, and deal with the health problems ourselves. Never did it say we felt entitled to taxpayer money to solve them.

America is losing liberty because we're letting the government take it away from us. My friend Bobby (the original writer of Liberty) knows that. He's not complaining, he's trying to get people to wake up and take their rights back.

One final thing: the founding fathers didn't want everyone to be equal. They wanted everybody to be whatever they had the ability and the initiative to make themselves.

NOT WRITTEN BY BARBAZUL: WRITTEN BY FRIEND OF BARBAZUL (YES, HE HAS FRIENDS)

I did read your post properly. Your friend is asserting that America was founded on a fight over liberty and freedoms, when the reality is it was founded over money and Britain's mismanagement of its authority. That's right The American Revolution was caused by Britain mismanaging it's colonies in America for too long, and then trying to reassert its power too quickly on them.

The point is you didn't mention mooching of society, and that's why I pointed it out because you fail to mention that making poor lifestyle choices typically leads to relying on government run programs. Which are guess what payed for buy the American Tax payers.

These are all facts please take a look and A History of Western Society AP edition, and next time your in an unemployment office, or getting a social securities check( by which you now live month to month because you didn't save money but instead spent it on pot ) please be sure to deny the fact that that was payed for by someone else and you are mooching.

Oh and you mentioned prohibition that was because women fought for it based on the fact that it was destroying family values, weird why would drunk father scar kids?

What I am trying to do is open your eyes and see the blood on your hands as well. Ours is not a perfect system, even I know that, but it is a democracy. So I will have to assume that you get your say, and that this whole post makes no difference because you vote and those who agreed with you probably agreed before hand too so there was no gain.

Okay, completely disregarding your argument because this /is/ Barbazul and i'm not about to speak for my friend, who the fuck do you think you are to accuse someone you don't know of "...live month to month because you didn't save money but instead spent it on pot"? You are an arrogant dick. Just because someone has a differing opinion from yours doesn't make them less than you. So, essentially what i'm trying to say is, fuck off you insolent prick. Partially because he's my friend, but primarily because what you said was completely out of line.

I'm sorry, but you're the ones who essentially called me an idiot because my grammar and spelling aren't perfect, I'm dyslexic bite me, and because my opinion is different yours.

So don't tell me that what I did was out out of line because he took it there. He challenged me saying that I have "NOTHING to back up most of what you're[I'm] saying" when I do. You see your friend and you called me an idiot and then questioned my credibility so was it really "out of line" to give you one of my sources and insult him right back?

Oh also it's called a hypothetical situation. I assume you know what that is by the vocabulary you use. Because it is proven that those who buy illegal drugs typically make other choices in life that leads them to dependency on either their family or government for money.

Don't insult me and get pissed when I go right back at you because the reality is that you want to abuse the system. This is a democracy and if the people really wanted to change things they could, after all prohibition was repealed. It's called preaching to the choir, what your doing.

A friend of mine actually just posted this on facebook and I believe it is related.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else"

Has he considered that you cannot abide by rules made 400 years ago in today's society? Move with the times or you'll get left behind. Society is better now than it was then, don't nitpick just because people frown on things that are bad for you. Not a single one of you would go back and live back in those days of 'liberty'. For starters, you wouldn't have sharenator.